Biashara Leo : Feb/Mar 2010
YOUNG ENTERPRENEURS
Entrepreneurship is a strong agent for change. Indeed the story of three enterprising friends, Boniface Nganga, David Ogiga and Frank Omondi clearly exemplifies this maxim. The three are using tourism as a tool to develop a small community at the Kenyan Coast.
How Finch Travels is making a business case for wildlife conservation
Entrepreneurship is a strong agent for change. Indeed the story of three enterprising friends, Boniface Nganga, David Ogiga and Frank Omondi clearly exemplifies this maxim. The three are using tourism as a tool to develop a small community at the Kenyan Coast. The thrust of their company, Finch Travels, is to make a business case for wildlife conservation. The company has a charity arm, Kasigau Trust, whose aim is to improve the livelihoods of people in the surrounding community by involving them in tourism development.
The region around Mt Kasigau, part of the Taita Hills, has rich biodiversity. The inhabitants mainly comprise subsistence farmers. For a long time, however, the community had a problem with food security partly because wild animals strayed into their farms and destroyed their crops. Compounded with the problem of inadequate rainfall, their land was not economically productive. To eke out a living, the people in the community were involved in counterproductive activities such as charcoal burning, sand harvesting and poaching that were destructive to the environment.
Having been involved in wildlife conservation and having worked with the community in Kasigau, Omondi was convinced that it was possible to establish a successful enterprise there, one that could also benefit the community. Besides, he and his colleagues shared a love for animals and they considered the prospects of doing a business that brought them into contact with wildlife to be exciting.
'Corporate Social responsibility- a big opportunity'
Kasigau Trust, has a land concession agreement with the Kasigau community. Under the agreement, the company has leased the land, therefore providing a source of income to the 2500 shareholders, who are all drawn from the surrounding community. In addition, the charity has been able to create job opportunities and source for grants that have gone into community projects such as infrastructure improvement.
Kasigau Trust is run by a board of trustees and comprises five representatives from the local community. The charity is supported by Slovak Aid, United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and BornFree Foundation.
“It has not been easy”
For the specialist tourist operator, corporate social responsibility presents a big opportunity to grow its business while helping people living in the locality to improve their standard of living. “The charity is a way to assist the community within which the business operates,” says Omondi.
Recently, Kasigau Trust, with the assistance of Slovak Aid, Microsoft Inc. and Pontis Foundation donated twenty computers and two printers to Moi High School Kasigau. The computers were all networked and connected with internet. The project was launched on 20th of February and plans are underway to spread this programme to other schools in the area.
“In the next five years, our plan is to build three more units in Mombasa, Amboseli and in an island in Kisumu,” says Frank Omondi the managing director. “We consider the social approach to our business to be important for us and we will use the same model that combines business with social aspects,” ends Omondi.
‘If you stand long enough at one place, the world will come to you’
Nganga, Ogiga and Omondi met in 2001 during their freshman year in Moi University, where they were studying Wildlife Management. Besides a mutual appreciation of nature, they have had a long working relationship that began
in their first year of university, where they served as officials of the Wildlife Association of Moi University (WISAMU) and where they were able to breath life to a flailing club.
In 2004, with only a laptop, the then twenty four year old fresh graduates set up Finch Travels. At about the time that they began, there was a group of America students going on Safari to Tanzania but who were stuck in Kenya because their tour operator was experiencing logistical problems. As luck would have it, they got to know about the predicament of these students and offered to plan the Safari for them within twenty four hours. As it were, that group of American students was the company’s first client.
Today, Finch Travel is a specialist tours operator that offers a wide range of Safaris and holiday packages to value clients who seek a more fulfilling experience that is informative, rich in cultural experience and one that is built around ethical practices. “It is one thing to go to the Mara, for instance, and another to be involved in responsible tourism that makes a difference in the lives of people in the community you visit,” says Omondi, the managing director. Finch Travels currently has thirty employees, five in the Nairobi office and 25 in Kasigau.
However, to get the company to where it is today, their entrepreneurial journey has not been anything rosy. In their first year of business, for instance, they were involved in a car accident and hospitalized, running a bill of close to a million shillings. Thanks to family and friends, they were able to surmount that initial hurdle.
They have also had to contend with poor business. Omondi highlights one of the low moments: “At one point, business was so bad, we asked our employees not to come to work because we could not afford to pay them.” With amusement, Ogiga adds: “However, every single day, the employees would still report to their work stations and do whatever there was to be done.”
Out of resilience and what Omondi refers to as God’s grace, the business made it through that rough patch and has been able to overcome subsequent challenges. Ogiga reminisces: “My joy has been to cultivate trust and whenever Boniface (Nganga), Frank (Omondi) and I go out for business, we go the extra mile. Nurturing the business is like taking care of a baby of your own and you always want the best for it.” Nevertheless, he points out that they maintain an open approach to the company’s operations and are always ready to step in for either partner whenever necessary.
The trio have also leveraged on each of their strengths to build the business. The outgoing and sociable Omondi is involved in making pitches and networking. He is the managing director. With a good understanding of wildlife, Ogiga is in charge of tour operations and is involved in tour guiding. Nganga, ‘the hands-on man’ is in charge of the day to day operations of the business and handles finance. Both Nganga and Ogiga oversee the management of the charity.
Ownership of the business and day to day running are also clearly differentiated. To ensure that the company adheres to good corporate governance, Finch Travels has a board of directors.
For any company, it is important to set a bar within which performance is measured. To this end (just like other employees) the three managers have a work contract.
Frank sums up their entrepreneurial journey as follows: “At times you have a dream that you think that can never be achieved but you realize it. It goes to show that at times, you need to stand in one place long enough and the world will come to you.”
BY ASANTE MEDIA LTD
According to Ogiga who is in charge of tour operations, it has not been easy getting the company on its feet. For instance, when negotiating for concession agreements with the local community, they faced resistance in some quarters. He points out that it was not easy, for instance, to convince the community that they stood to gain from their involvement in the project because other conservancies that have entered into similar agreements with the community have been marred by conflicts and management problems. Ogiga further explains how they were able to get support of the community: “It took capacity building and a lot of developmental work to earn the trust of the community,”
In July 2009, after four years of planning, the company began construction of an eco-lodge. The eco-lodge is made out of environmentally friendly material. The walls are built of interlocking stabilized sand blocks (ISSB) while the roof is made of Makuti, palm leaves. People from the community were hired to make the bricks by hand, while the makuti was bought from a Giriama family, providing employment opportunities to the local community. The cottage, known as Kiwanjani, has exclusive rooms with a beautiful view of a watering hole. When completed in March this year, the 12 bed eco-lodge will mainly target middle and high-end clients who have the welfare of the communities they visit at heart and who want to make a difference to the community they visit.
Copyright © 2008 Finch Travels LTD